Old Oraibi is a Hopi village in Navajo County, Arizona. When you drive into Navajo County, your GPS goes completly black, it is off the grid. Oraibi was started sometime before 1100 A.D., and has been continually inhabited ever since. You can see the smoke coming from early morning fires. It is situated on the edge of the Grand Canyon.
In 1540 Oraibi was discovered by the Spanish in their quest to find the Seven Cities of Gold. In 1629 Europeans attempted to establish a mission in Oraibi which led to an eventual split in the population, with some embracing cultural influences from the Europeans, and some rejecting all such influences. In 1890, this philosophical division in the population resulted in the founding of a new settlement closer to the trading post, named New Oraibi. In 1906, a final split resulted from a bloodless expulsion of those friendly toward the European influences.
Through the years, those friendly componants have repeatedly attempted to reintegrate themselves back into Old Oraibi, but to no avail. Old Oraibi exists today much as it always has, and is the oldest continually inhabited settlement in North America. The ruins of the Spanish mission can be seen in the village.
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